Richard Stratton Laybourne

Fg Off Richard Stratton Laybourne (23)(Lt, Welsh Guards) was killed when his Hart K3744, of 1 FTS, Leuchars Crashed on railway line, near Stravithie Station, near St Andrews Scotland

COMBAT REPORTS

DRINKS TO HIS MEMORY Guardsman's Will Officers and men ot the Welsh Guards will always remember Lieut. Richard Stratton Laybourne, He came to them from Worcester College, Oxford, steeped in the family tradition, generations old, which decreed that a Laybourne-for years they had/ lived seml-feudally at Malpas, Monmouthshire-should join the Army. _ To his men he was the perfect officer who would not spare himself to see^thelr lives niade~happy and their grievances justly Investigated^ It -was to . serve his country and Increase his knowledge of m'odern wárfare that'Lieut. ..Lay- bourne, only just 23, obtained- a'tem- porary transfer'from the Welsh Guards to the Royal Air Force, and lt was as a flying officer (R.A.F.) that he met his death within a few days of the comple- tion of his flying training. His swift, single-seater warplane crashed on the railway lino near St. Andrews, Scot- land. CHAMPAGNE AND BEER Perhaps lt was with memories of his own experiences in the regiment,-writes a "Dally Mail", correspondent, that he directed In his will that, a bottle of champagne should be provided every Saturday for the Welsh Guards officer on piquet duty during the cold and lons nights between October 1 and March 31. . The colonel of the regiment, Col. Fox P^tt, already charged with administer- ing £500 to provide for the champagne, with Instructions to devote the balance to the officers' mess, ls given ¿.-,£3,000 under the will 'to .'provide beer and cigarettes for the men td celebrate his blrthday.every year. , Each, serving memtíer of the Welsh Guards will, on .May "7, be provided with drinks and "smokes" to the value of-1/ by thls.legacy, the balance of which ls to be applied to the benefit of poor and needy Welsh Guardsmen or their fami- lies past and. present, who have en- listed from Monmouthshire. His will was dated less than three months before his death. He left estate of the gross value of £18,456. His friends and college at Oxford have also been remembered, and there ls a be- quest of £100 to Mr. Drake, the college butler at Worcester College.